Jeff Brooks of the agency Merkle-Domain publishes a great blog called the donorpowerblog, the premise of which is that "More than ever before, donors are insisting that you share power with them, not treating them like passive ATMs".  I very much subscribe to this philosophy.

Jeff and I however differ in our opinions on the value of donor research.  Jeff recently posted in response to our Wired Wealth Research  that:

Most organizations that pay attention to what their donors do will probably find these survey results to be a bit hysterical and slightly out of step with reality.

That said, this survey should get your attention. It signals a change in response medium that's likely to become significant quickly. Not only wealthy donors, but donors across the spectrum are turning more an more online to give and otherwise interact with charities. Donation revenue is migrating from the mail to the web, and that means we need to become effective at communicating online."

As Jeff points out, it is generally better to observe what people actually do vs. what they say they do however we must remember that current donor behavior is strongly influenced by how nonprofits engage them.  If we have conditioned our donors to respond via mail and don't make the online experience as compelling as their online banking, shopping, or travel booking experiences, surely it influences their behavior?

The point of a donor survey was to understand the "gap" between donor stated preferences and how nonprofits perform today.  Observed behavior and data is important but we should not ignore the voice of the donor in helping derive next generation strategies.

Back in 1999, if I just observed what donors were actually doing online with nonprofits vs. observing their behavior with commercial entities and surveying them about their preferences, I would never have started Convio!

Vinay Bhagat

Founder & CSO Convio

Wired Wealthy Study co-author